NEW DELHI: India\u2019s Maharashtra state, home to financial hub Mumbai, will be the first to roll out Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink Internet service in the world\u2019s most populous country, the chief minister said.<\/p>\n
The launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed Internet to remote locations using low-orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation.<\/p>\n
India \u2014 projected to have more than 900 million Internet users by year\u2019s end \u2014 granted Starlink a license in June.<\/p>\n
Maharashtra was \u201cpoised to become the first Indian state to formally collaborate with Starlink,\u201d the state\u2019s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on the Musk-owned platform X late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis collaboration… will ensure the state leads India in satellite-enabled digital infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, India\u2019s biggest telecom service providers \u2014 Jio Platforms and its rival Bharti Airtel \u2014 announced deals with SpaceX to offer Starlink Internet to their customers.<\/p>\n
Starlink\u2019s business operations vice president Lauren Dreyer said she was \u201cexcited\u201d to further India\u2019s digital vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to connecting schools, medical facilities and beyond in the most remote and unconnected areas once Starlink receives final approvals,\u201d Dreyer said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Major technology firms looking to court users in the world\u2019s fifth-largest economy have made a flurry of announcements about expanding into the country this year.<\/p>\n
In October, Google announced it will invest $15 billion in India over the next five years to build a giant data center and artificial intelligence base there, the largest AI hub it is investing in outside of the United States.<\/p>\n
US companies Anthropic, OpenAI are both planning Indian offices, while Perplexity announced a major partnership in July with Indian telecom giant Airtel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI: India\u2019s Maharashtra state, home to financial hub Mumbai, will be the first to roll out Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink Internet service in the world\u2019s most populous country, the chief minister said. The launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed Internet to remote locations using low-orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-512895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n